Trek had a mixed day in the Vuelta a Espana. While Kristof Vandewalle exceeded expectations in a tough mountain stage, Julian Arredondo abandoned due to fatigue.

Stage 15 showcased the second straight summit finish of the 2014 Vuelta a España, a 12.2-kilometer grueling climb with an average gradient of 7.2%, and in the end it proved too much for most of the five men who formed the day’s breakaway. The GC rivals showed no mercy today as they thundered past four of the five, including Kristof Vandewalle, who held on to finish in 15th place. 

Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) would be the sole rider of the day's escape to hold off the GC contenders and take the win by a handful of seconds. 

Vandewalle finished second best from the original five men who battled out front for the better part of the 152-kilometer stage, but in the final three kilometers the Vuelta’s strongest climbers powered past leaving him in 15th place, not as the runner up.

“I am suffering with a broken rib still, from the crash of the TTT, and I also had problems with pain in my back today," he said. "But I tried to cover the attacks at the start.  At a certain moment I decided to go myself, and then we had five guys, I had hoped it would have been a bigger group, but they gave us a lot of time.

"On the first categorized climb it was not so hard but the descent was very slippery and dangerous. There were several moments when I felt my back wheel sliding. We had to take it real slow. But I had a good feeling; I just could not do a top acceleration with my back. I pulled through and when it came to the last climb I just did my own pace that I could hold for the whole climb. Two guys went immediately but I knew that one of them would blow up.

"I think if I was there at the end and fighting for the victory that Niemiec would have been hard to beat, but I am sure I could have been second. But the GC guys were faster today. Even if my back and ribs are not perfect I was still confident that I could do a good race today, and that I can still do something in the last week.”

It was a big ride from Vandewalle in a tough mountain stage and it gave a boost to the entire team. Director Josu Larrazabal, who followed Kristof in the breakaway from the team car, heaped praise on the entire team’s effort today:

“We were once again doing well in the beginning of the race with the guys going with every group, and again we have a guy in the break.  When the break had 10 minutes we thought maybe it would be possible to do something, but then Movistar took the race in hand, started pulling, and the time went down.

"We arrived to the last climb with only four minutes. It was a hard 12k climb for Kristof who is not a pure climber, but he did a really, really good job to stay close to Niemiec. In the last kilometers he missed a little bit, and the GC guys caught him, but to finish in the top 15 today, you have to understand for him, that was a super effort.”

The other news out of the Trek Factory Racing camp Sunday was Julian Arredondo stepping off his bike after the feed zone and handing in his race number.  Under the searing hot weather of the first week Arredondo had struggled to find his form, and although the team encouraged him to continue with the hope he would eventually rebound, the hole he dug was too deep.

“Julian was tired since a lot of days, and we encouraged him to keep going in case he could recover and do something later in the race," sports director Adriano Baffi said. "But today he stopped, he is simply very, very tired.”

Tomorrow the Vuelta continues with a third successive mountain stage that is considered the queen stage of the three-week race followed by the second rest day on Tuesday.  The final week offers a few stages better suited to Trek Factory Racing’s ambition for a stage victory, and Baffi pointed out that today’s performance has raised the team's morale and that all is still possible.

“The riders are doing well in this past days, and showing a presence," Baffi said. "We don’t have a big sprinter here, or a big climber, so we need to find opportunities each day. Today was one and although we do not have anything to show in the hand it has raised our morale and confidence. Tomorrow will be very hard, but maybe the last week we can do something. Why not?”